Lauri Markkanen, star of the NBA’s Utah Jazz, surprised this Sunday by uploading a photo to his social networks in which he was seen lying on a hillside and dressed in full military equipment. “A different birthday,” wrote the Finnish power forward to celebrate his 26th birthday. A very different scene from the one the player lived just a few months ago, when he was destroying hoops in the best basketball league in the world (last season he averaged more than 25 points per game).
The answer to the riddle is very simple. In Finland, every man over 18 and under 30 must do a period of compulsory military service due to the proximity of the Nordic country to Russia, with which it shares more than 1,200 kilometers of border. There has always been tension between the two countries, but the invasion of Ukraine has put all border areas on high alert.
“It is mandatory, we have to do it, but at the same time we feel proud of it,” the Nordic said last April in an interview with ESPN. Initially, Markkanen was going to do it at the end of last season, but the Cleveland Cavaliers, the club in which he was a member at that time, got into the postseason and the possibility faded. This year, despite his meritorious campaign (he was included in the All-Star and won the award for most improved player), the Jazz did not enter the playoffs and since April 17 he has gone from star to recruit, although he continues to earn money. 17 million dollars a year.
According to her agent, Lauri lives these months at the base of the Helsinki Defense Forcesthe capital of Finland, where he learns and performs reconnaissance and emergency maneuvers while having at his disposal, like the rest of the athletes who share his situation, a powerful sports complex so that he does not lose shape for the next season and the imminent Basketball World Cup, which will begin at the end of August.
2023-06-11 15:41:54
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